Tarzan (PlayStation)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 7.8 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Lauren Fielder
• Reviewed on: 07/14/1999
• Updated on: 05/02/2000
• Released on: 06/30/1999
• Originally published on GameSpot: Tarzan (PlayStation) Review

Disney-released video games are becoming almost as routine as Disney-released animated films, only the games tend to be more insufferable. It's that negative emotion, alongside the vestigial shellshock of A Bug's Life, that keeps people from looking forward to a movie-license game that's due to arrive on the heels of the movie itself. If Eurocom's Tarzan game proves anything, however, it's that sometimes it feels quite good to be proven wrong.

Tarzan, the game, follows the recently released animated film's plot exactly, and that's a very good thing, as the movie's pacing is conducive to the challenges you expect from a video game. Actually, what Tarzan captures, surprisingly, is the simplicity (with challenge) found in classic games. Tarzan's a single-player game; you play as Tarzan most of the time, first as the young ape man in training and then later as the perpetually "prime of life" Tarzan. When you're not playing as Tarzan, you're running through the jungle as Jane, in a Victorian dress, attempting to flee a pack of baboons; or you're tearing up the campsite as Terk, Tarzan's she-ape companion.

There are 14 levels in all, and, surprisingly, each level and the objective therein is strikingly different from one another. Sure, there are conventions that reoccur in some levels, such as swinging on vines or sliding along fallen trees. However, these consistent features contribute to your overall grasp of the gameplay and become more demanding as you proceed (yes, demanding. Tarzan is not an easy game). About half the levels are composed of standard 2D platform jumping, while you grab items and avoid animals until you reach the end. The rest of the levels take advantage of action scenes in the movie. In the Stampede level, for example, you control Tarzan as he runs ahead of a pack of elephants Crash Bandicoot- or Herc's Adventures-style. You move from side to side and jump when necessary. This parallels the stampede scene in the movie. In the Sabor Attacks level, you fight the leopard, Sabor, with a spear and with tricky jumping moves a number of times until you conquer him, just as in the film. The aforementioned event with Jane is the Baboon Chase level, which follows the movie so closely that it has Tarzan swinging in to save you, hence navigating the chase at that point.

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